Ask HN: I haven't had to buy a Windows computer in 20 years
Hell HN,
I haven't had to buy a Windows computer in 20 years. I am back in school for stenography. As I get older I wanted to learn a "trade" that would ensure I could work into my older years. The school requires Windows as they work with Stenograph hardware.
I've looked everywhere to buy a laptop. I need ram mostly and a few USB ports.
I bought a cheap $200 laptop (16gb ram) at Walmart and after a few months of nothing but troubles I need to acquire something better that is budget friendly but reliable. The problems have been with using the stenography hardware and everything freezing up. The company that makes the stenotype machine is blaming my laptop.
I could spend $500-$1000 (perhaps more if it is compelling). I don't really need all the fluff that comes when you buy a machine these days.
Can anyone recommend a path to finding a reliable, laptop with lots of RAM that will last for several years?
Thank you for clarifying my confusion in the market.
Laptop brands are still trying to get away with 8GB RAM machines for general use, and especially at that value point of $200 you'll probably see 2-4GB models too.
You have a niche use-case but RAM does indeed appear to be the main bottleneck. You don't need fancy graphics, or a particularly fast CPU. You likely only need good single-core speeds.
The i5-12400 is a workhorse on the CPU front that isn't crazy old, and should do you well enough on the single core front. Pair that with 16GB of RAM and I would think you'd be set.
$1,000 might get you more if you wanted to be safe and future proof a bit more. However, RAM prices are very high right now and venturing up to 32GB of RAM might hard.
Something like this: https://www.bestbuy.com/product/asus-zenbook-14-14-fhd-oled-...
32GB RAM, nice screen, touch screen, very modern CPU (beating the 12400 benchmark). $100 under your top end of budget. It is only a 14 inch screen, great for portability, but maybe you like a bigger screen for reviewing as much content as possible?
14 inches is fine for me the smaller the better. Thanks you for a detailed reply and the link. This laptop looks like it could be good for me.
I think I found it on Costco.com for cheaper: https://www.costco.com/p/-/acer-aspire-14-ai-copilot-pc-touc...
Have you considered installing Linux and seeing if WINE/Proton can run that software? Might free up a bit of RAM headroom, and if it doesn't work out, you haven't lost anything more than a bit of time as you'll just be grabbing a beefier laptop anyways.
The software is Case Catalyst by Stenograph, Inc. I can try. I don't have much experience with WINE working well enough in the past with other niche apps. Thank You.
I have not had luck getting Case Catalyst to run well in WINE and it is not in the WINE AppDB. WINE is great software, but just stick with Windows, so you don't have two problems.
Also, uninstall any extra software (so called "crapware") that came installed on your laptop. These are notorious for hogging resources. Often this comes in the form of antivirus software and "lite" software suites that nag you for subscriptions constantly.
Uninstall anything Symantec, Norton or Adobe (unless you absolutely need it).
I personally use Chris Titus's WinUtil to debloat: https://christitus.com/windows-tool/
Thank you for the link to this tool. That should help! :-)
WINE has come along way (in fact, legacy Windows apps tend to work better on Linux that Windows 11 these days), especially when you add in Proton, Winetricks, etc. It's worth a shot
Used ThinkPad. T4XX preferred.
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